Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Let IT Help You

Project management can be a difficult process; especially if there is a breakdown in communication between any of the stake holders or resources. Are you migrating your infrastructure? Don't wait to tell your end users until the morning everything is cut over into production. Are you building a website for a client, and the site needs to go live? Don't wait until two hours before the deadline to tell your IT staff that you need DNS changes and web server resources for production.

Competent Systems and/or Network Administrators know how to work with the limitations of the technologies crucial to the success of your project, and they should be consulted on every project that utilizes or consumes any IT assets that you expect to be provisioned in time to meet your deadline.

Yes, we love our ticket systems, and no, you are not exempt from following our documented policies and procedures.

Why? Why must you email me a ticket, or fill out a provisioning request form online at the company intranet to have resources allocated to your needs? Like you, we Admins have to manage our time in the most effective way possible, and we value consistent results. We want to prioritize and (most importantly) remember your request.

It can be difficult for an organization to get used to working with a competent SysAdmin - there will be growing pains for all involved. Disorganization and crisis are not necessarily indicative of hard work, and if you must work hard, at least work smarter.

Keep us in the loop. Is your project approved? At the very least, Cc our ticketing system. This one simple little act will save you many hours of frustration. Get into the habit of sending your SysAdmins a ticket for every request upon their time.

You may look at us as a cost center. Perhaps this is because you won't let IT help you make business decisions. Of course, such a relationship requires a large amount of trust, and when that trust exists, we can show you how wonderful technology can be in the corporate environment.

Work against IT, and you will constantly be frustrated when we can't magically circumvent technical limitations because you're about to be late and over budget on your project.

Work with IT, and let us help you remove so much unnecessary stress from your daily operations.

Technology can be fun, but you have to work by our rules so that we can implement industry best pracices. Of course, you could also play by the rules as well and have a little fun with technology - the choice is yours.